Every child has the right to go to school and learn

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The challenge

Education offers children a ladder out of poverty and a path to a promising future. But about 264 million children and adolescents around the world do not have the opportunity to enter or complete school. They are thwarted by poverty, discrimination, armed conflict, emergencies and the effects of climate change.

UNICEF believes that every child has the right to an education regardless of who they are, where they live or how much money their family has. In 155 countries around the world, UNICEF works to provide learning opportunities that begin in early childhood and prepare every child with the knowledge and skills needed to thrive.

Globally, 264 million children and adolescents do not have the opportunity to enter or complete school.

UNICEF/UN073959/Clarke for UNOCHA

A student stands in the ruins of his former classroom, which was destroyed in June 2015 at the Aal Okab school in Saada, Yemen. Students now attend lessons in UNICEF tents nearby.

Only 50 per cent of refugee children are enrolled in primary school.

Children uprooted by crises lose more than a roof over their heads. Without education, they risk losing their futures.

27 empty school buses in Manhattan draw attention to 27 million children out of school in conflict zones ahead of the 72nd UN General Assembly in New York.

The solution

For the girl who grows up poor in a remote rural area, staying in school and learning can protect her from child marriage, intimate-partner violence and continued poverty. For the boy who lives in an urban slum, schooling instead of child labour can provide him with the skills needed for a better-paying and more fulfilling job as an adult. For children in emergencies, education offers safety, a sense of normalcy and the knowledge needed to build a more peaceful future.

In each of these situations, the solution for children is education. UNICEF collaborates with partners to develop educational systems that provide the world’s most disadvantaged children with learning opportunities that will change their lives, and the lives of their children, too.

UNICEF/UN0124120/Pietrasik

On 20 September 2017, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Priyanka Chopra (left) and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Muzoon Almellehan (right) hold up a slate with the statement, “For every child, an education”, in a ‘bombed-out’ school classroom set up at UNICEF House to raise awareness of the 27 million children worldwide out of school due to conflict.

School in a cave gives Syrian children a safe learning environment

Students in class at a primary school in Bingerville, a commune of Côte d'Ivoire's capital, Abidjan. In Côte d’Ivoire, less than seven children out of ten go to primary school. UNICEF distributes school kits to children and supports the Ministry of Education by building schools and training teachers.

Resources

These resources on education represent just a small selection of materials produced by UNICEF and its partners in the last three years. The list is regularly updated to include the latest information.

This advocacy brief provides essential data and information on educational challenges faced by nearly 50 million children on the move and children uprooted by conflict. It concludes with a call to action to find solutions so that every migrant, refugee and displaced child can go to school and learn.